Benedict Optioners? Out there?

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Did you read it?

Do you have kids?

How many 25 year olds attend your parish?

You know where I am going with this and that is the point of the book, it is not to pull away from the world but to preserve ourselves.
 
I think there is an important point to be discussed here – how do Christians live in a society that is hostile towards them? In a way, they have to be “underground”. That is, if they want to be employable. Canada scares me, due to their hostility to the Christian viewpoint, and I wonder when it will be like that in the US. At least in the Benedict Option, you could live your faith in community more easily. Assuming you had a livelihood. 🙂
 
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Hired to photograph a lesbian wedding Moral Theology
I am a wedding photographer but also a practicing Catholic. I have two daughters aged 7 and 8 that bear witness to my faith, and I also teach them in the ways of our Lord. I’m a Cooperator of Opus Dei, I make a morning offering and examine my conscience every night. I say all this to illustrate that I take my faith very seriously. Yesterday I received a phone call to photograph a wedding. She asked me if July 14th was still open, and I said yes. Long story short, I agreed to photograph her wedd…
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here ya go!
 
I haven’t read the book but I’ve read some reviews. I don’t find it objectionable. In fact, I think in many cases it’s a good idea for Catholics to set up their own communities. The Benedictine Monks did it. The Mormons did it in Utah. It’s a way for Faithful Catholics to unite and fight the culture wars.
 
Basically, the author is confused by the name.

I have read Dreher extensively, going months at a time without missing a single article, and he writes prolifically, usually 3-4 articles a day. I know before he has mentioned those criticism the author makes, and what Rod has come up with is not a blue print on how to do any of these. It will need to be fleshed out a good deal. Played by ear, just to see what works.

I know there are a few communites, as the author mentions, that are lay people living around monestaries. That would be one way of doing things. Maybe just searching out other devout families at ones parish and socializing primarily, or more so, with them. Who knows.
 
I notice that the two gents who don’t like it, don’t hold jobs in secular society (unless Deacon Jeff holds a secular job?)
 
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I do think it’s important to have a community, whether that’s your parish or your family or friends, who can support each other and pray for each other by name. That’s how we manage to “be in the world but not of it.” I don’t feel closed off from the world, but I do feel like I have a home, where I can be rejuvenated and best nurture my kids, before we go out there and do it all over again.
 
Thanks for answering! Do you feel like you can live your faith authentically in your workplace?
 
Yes, he is confused by the name Benedict Option, but it is more than just that. Maybe Amish Option would be a better name. Are we Christians who are not monastics called to engage with or to withdraw from the world? Some, I suppose, will want or need to withdraw more than others, but I personally think most of us should not just throw up our hands and run away when faced with immorality or other aspects of the larger world which are not to our liking. We should engage and work to change these things, to witness Christ’s message to others, and to show the world a better way.
 
christofirst said:
Are we Christians who are not monastics called to engage with or to withdraw from the world?
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What better way to engage the world than build towns, churches, schools, homes etc? The Benedict Option doesn’t mean we have to isolate. It’s about creating our own communities. It works well for the Jews.
 
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The early Christians founded their own communities. The puritans who founded America went there to found their own societies. Are you sure it’s such a horrible idea?
 
Now, we call them Baptist.

Actually, in many ways it is very much like the early Christians. Persecuted by the government that is supposed to provide security. See my link to our own “Hired to photograph a lesbian wedding” thread, up above.

Even a few hundred years ago, Tunsia was something like 30% Christian; now, non existent.

Your great grandkids (that is if not just grandkids) will not keep the faith if the trend continues, something must change. Do you disagree?
 
I don’t see the downside to a group of Catholics deciding to found their own school, parish and community. It doesn’t mean that non-Catholics can’t live there or attend the schools etc. It just means that Catholics can start afresh and build something.

Look at the modern state of Israel. Many Jews moved there and created a new country! Look at what the Mormons did in Utah. There’s nothing horrible about Catholics taking control of their lives and establishing their own institutions etc.
 
You should notice that I haven’t said we should become insular. My opinion is that Catholics who found new communities with schools and parishes will be great missionaries. I’m confident many non-Catholics would want to live in a flourishing new community. It would facilitate the Great Commission.
 
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The waves of Catholic immigrants to the USA did exactly what I propose. They founded their own parish communities with schools etc. They built beautiful churches and did great work for the Lord. There was nothing “vile, disgusting, abhorrent” in what they did. The Irish, Italians, Polish Catholics who built their own communities enriched the surrounding culture.
 
I have not read the book. Early Christians were subject to social discrimination, ostracization, martyrdom even, and they certainly lived in close (not ‘closed’) communities, but I can’t believe they ever removed themselves from the mainstream of society or culture entirely. Monks do that, but even they go out into the world at some point or another. The idea of closing off one community of faithful from the dregs of the faithless is a bit much. Look at Christians under communism in Eastern Europe - they held illegal Masses in barns, houses wherever they could at great personal risk. We simply are not facing that kind of persecution from society - at that level. I agree that this idea is at its core profoundly unChristian. My idea is we get more into the public square not less. Man is a social animal, with a social contract. I don’t diminish the gravity and militancy of anti Christian attitudes either - I think you need to be aware of that and resist it on your own Christian terms. THAT is witnessing Christ.
 
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Saxum said:
The waves of Catholic immigrants to the USA did exactly what I propose. They founded their own parish communities with schools etc. They built beautiful churches and did great work for the Lord. There was nothing “vile, disgusting, abhorrent” in what they did. The Irish, Italians, Polish Catholics who built their own communities enriched the surrounding culture.
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It was only because they built up, to some extent, their own Christian culture, that they were able to benefit the larger culture. The communities did.

There needs to be a kind of compromise here, because the situation varies from place to place. Years ago I was thinking about joining the local Social Work Association chapter, with the idea that I could bring some of my values in networking with others. Then I read the results of a survey of their members, 97% endorsed abortion on demand. Had I joined that group, my dues and my time would have been wasted. But there are other secular groups where direction is still “up for grabs”. You can influence the “floating vote”.

Years ago, an argument might have been made to stay active in the local Democratic Party, where “I might influence things”. Today, that ship has sailed. You will influence nothing.

I do more good spending time in the K of C. The local council, of course, favors prolife, but I greatly expand what they do in that area.

In recent years American life has imitated trends in secular universities a decade earlier. So if you want to plan for the near future, find out how prolifers, or opponents of gay marriage, are treated in the big campuses now. As long as Newman centers are strictly limited to condemning Trump, conducting food drives and perhaps an ethnic dinner or two, they will be tolerated…for now.

That is what the climate on Main Street will be in a decade. We still have to try to influence Main St, but you may have to spend half your time in the monastery. The monastery will influence Main St, few individuals will be able to.
 
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